You Cultivate, I Farm

Chapter 405: Evil Tracks

Techniques that enhance spiritual consciousness are exceedingly rare and, moreover, the difficulty of cultivating such methods far surpasses that of other techniques and physical cultivation arts.

Lu Xuan had acquired the first orb of the Divine Genesis Scripture some time ago and had attempted to cultivate it during his spare moments.

Unfortunately, the technique was profoundly arcane and abstruse, making progress slow, to the point where he had not even reached the threshold of entry.

Unexpectedly, after absorbing another set of technique experience, his progress in this technique advanced by leaps and bounds, making his cultivation smooth and natural without any sense of stagnation.

"Four Spirit Nurturing Pines have matured, three out of four, yielding three white orbs. From these, a fifth-rank treasure, the Spirit-Nurturing Scroll, and two fifth-rank Divine Genesis Scriptures have emerged—a truly bountiful harvest," Lu Xuan couldn't help but reveal a hint of a smile as he looked at the last Spirit Nurturing Pine about to fully mature, his eyes brimming with intense anticipation.

"Regrettably, back in the ancient medicinal garden of the Blessed Land, I only found four Spirit Nurturing Pine seeds."

"If there's a chance, I should visit again to see if I can find more seeds."

Lu Xuan contentedly returned to his room, spreading his palm open. A crack in the center of his hand instantly widened, and a grey-white pupil emerged from within.

This tiny pupil displayed a view from hundreds of miles away, seen through the Void Nightmare Eye, fully presenting everything before Lu Xuan.

In the courtyard, gusts of chilly wind blew sporadically, and occasionally, a grey-white pupil would quietly appear in the sky above, casting an emotionless gaze at the Holy Infant Fruit plant below before vanishing silently, almost as if it were a mere illusion.

"No abnormalities detected," Lu Xuan softly spoke in his mind.

As the Holy Infant Fruit drew closer to maturity, Lu Xuan decided to leave the Void Nightmare Eye in the courtyard. Through the grey-white pupil in his palm, he remotely monitored the goings-on in the courtyard to prevent any malevolent cultivator from stealthily entering.

After confirming there were no abnormalities, he finally felt somewhat relieved.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed, and under Lu Xuan's careful cultivation, the numerous spiritual plants in the spiritual field grew considerably.

The second-grade Water Firefly Grass began to mature, its slender azure leaves densely packed together, twinkling with luminescence as if they were countless stars adorning the night sky.

Lu Xuan inspected each plant, selecting forty-four fully matured ones from the two hundred Water Firefly Grass plants.

Being cultivated entirely within the inner sect, where spiritual energy was rich and without the stress of transplantation, the quality of these plants was exceptionally high, with a significant number of superior quality.

Lu Xuan harvested the forty-four Water Firefly Grass plants, looking at the forty-plus white orbs twinkling among the azure leaves. His figure turned into a beam of light, swiftly collecting all the orbs.

In his mind, thoughts raced by like a carousel at breakneck speed.

【Harvesting a second-grade Water Firefly Grass grants two years of cultivation.】

【Harvesting a second-grade Water Firefly Grass yields a third-grade artifact, the Water Elemental Pearl.】

【Harvesting a second-grade Water Firefly Grass obtains a second-grade Spirit Nurturing Pill recipe.】

...

Due to their superior quality, the rewards obtained from the orbs were also slightly higher on average.

Out of the forty-four Water Firefly Grass plants, sixteen orbs brought cultivation rewards: eleven for one year and five for two years, totaling twenty-one years of cultivation rewards.

As each orb was collected, spiritual power within Lu Xuan surged like ocean waves, each wave higher than the last, the tumultuous spiritual power violently impacting within his body.

He circulated the Grand Five Elements Technique, rapidly transforming the vast spiritual energy into droplets of pure spiritual liquid, which settled into his dantian.

"To gain over twenty years of cultivation in an instant, even if my talent limits me far behind the twenty years of other cultivation geniuses, this is still considered rapid progress," Lu Xuan reflected.

"There's no helping it; having orbs allows me to do as I please."

"For those cultivation geniuses, superior comprehension and talent are their natural abilities. For me, these orbs are my talent, just manifested in a different way."

He thought this with absolute calmness.

The remaining twenty-plus orbs yielded quite a few decent rewards.

A third-grade Water Dragon Talisman, a third-grade auxiliary artifact Water Elemental Pearl, a second-grade Spirit Nurturing Pill, a Spirit Nurturing Pill recipe, and so on.

Although somewhat superfluous for him, already at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, they could at least be exchanged for a considerable amount of spirit stones.

The days of farming were monotonous yet

fulfilling. Day after day, Lu Xuan nurtured the spiritual field, raised spirit beasts, and in his spare time, cultivated the Divine Genesis Scripture, practiced the Illusion Breaking Eye Technique, contemplated the fifth-grade Pure Yang True Fire Scroll, and through the Void Nightmare Eye, monitored the Holy Infant Fruit plant in the courtyard of Jianmen Town.

However, the thought of the unknown and substantial rewards that mature spiritual plants could bring made Lu Xuan immensely satisfied with this lifestyle, finding it sweetly rewarding.

"Hm? Seems like there's some movement."

One day, while tending to the spiritual plants, Lu Xuan was carefully observing through the grey-white pupil in the crack of his palm when suddenly, his expression turned serious, and he lightly exclaimed.

High above, the Void Nightmare Eye silently emerged from the crack, its pupil rotating to lock its gaze onto the Holy Infant Fruit plant.

Due to its location in the void, coupled with its powerful concealment abilities and level of illusion, the fifth-grade Void Nightmare Eye was hard to detect, giving Lu Xuan the confidence to keep it in the yard for surveillance.

The embryonic-shaped spiritual fruit began emitting streaks of black qi, which quickly spread. A dried, emaciated grey-black infant phantom emerged from the fruit.

The grey-black infant phantom aimlessly wandered around the courtyard, suddenly stopping in its tracks, a glint of malicious bitterness and cruelty flashing through its hollow eye sockets.

Quickly, it continued meandering around the courtyard, looking here and there, but compared to its initial instinctual behavior, it now seemed more deliberate and subjective, as if a consciousness lurked within the infant's body.

"I merely left a seedling at the auction, intending it as a casual deployment. I never expected to hook such a big fish, hehe."

The infant's head rotated mechanically, looking at everything in the yard with a low, sinister laugh.

"A fourth-grade Blood Spirit Palm Ginseng, quite a rare spiritual plant, perfectly suitable for cultivating that blood path technique."

The tiny body grasped at a wandering blood-red palm, contentedly saying, "And that fourth-grade Filth-Eating Grass, useful for concocting special medicinal pills. The unknown spiritual soil in the yard even contains the power of flesh and blood."

"More importantly, those two possibly fifth-grade aberrant spiritual plants. If I wait for them to mature, I can use them myself to increase my chances of breaking through to the Core Formation stage."

"Or if I offer them to other cultivators, I could exchange them for resources that would aid in breaking through to Core Formation."

The more the infant thought about it, the more excited it became, its tiny body trembling uncontrollably.

Initially, it had only sensed the imminent maturity of the Holy Infant Fruit and, through the maternal plant's sensation of the seedling's location and their special abilities, possessed the seedling fruit to observe the situation. Unexpectedly, it brought him an immense surprise.

"It's time to close the net."

The corners of the infant's mouth curled up, revealing a strange smile.